A new breakthrough transplant procedure developed at Massachusetts General Hospital confirms that the problem of organ rejection after transplantation can be mitigated without using immunosuppressive drugs, sparing transplant recipients a lifetime of side effects.

Eight years ago, Jennifer Searl used a handicapped permit to get around campus at the University of New Hampshire. Last October, Searl, 26, ran a half-marathon and felt so good afterward she immediately signed up for another. In between these two extremes lies not only a journey of a thousand steps, but one taken along a path Searl herself blazed - with help from the Massachusetts General Hospital Transplant Center.